Archived News:

Tuesday, Apr 17, 2012

The Diablo III Website has a new feature on the Monk class in Blizzard's upcoming action/RPG sequel, pointing the way to this reveal with details and a new trailer. They also announce the beta test for the game is drawing to a close in two weeks:

In preparation for the launch of Diablo III on Tuesday, May 15, the beta servers will be brought offline on Tuesday, May 1. At that time, all beta accounts and character information will be reset. Leading up to Diablo's May 15 launch date, players will only be able to create comments and forum posts on the official Diablo III community site if they have pre-purchased Diablo III or have a StarCraft II or an active World of Warcraft game license attached to their Battle.net account. In the meantime, we encourage everyone to stay tuned to this website for exciting news and updates regarding the upcoming release.

The Settlers Online is now live and out of beta, celebrating the full launch of this free-to-play online strategy game with a name change to The Settlers Online: Castle Empire. They celebrate the launch with a new in-game event "bringing new quests, adventures, special buildings, a new general and a Raving Rabbid statue." Here's an overview of the game:

Developed by Ubisoft Blue Byte, The Settlers Online: Castle Empire combines the popular gameplay elements of The Settlers franchise with brand new features suited to a persistent, web-based browser game. Players are able to settle a new city and join thousands of gamers already online to create or join guilds, trade resources and acquire and exchange bonuses to help each other out along the way to building a mighty kingdom.

Like other third-person shooters, Mercenary Ops implements cover-based mechanics and an active reload system as the foundation of the game's design. Along with these familiar gameplay elements, the developers added the precise control and aiming abilities found only on the PC. In addition, the game was enhanced by adding destructible cover, an encumbrance system and maps designed with multiple threat vectors to shake up the stop-and-pop gameplay often found in third-person shooters.

Combat in Mercenary Ops puts an equal emphasis on both competitive play and team-based cooperative missions. In competitive multiplayer, up to 16 players can faceoff in five different, intense game modes, while in co-op, teams of 3 - 8 players take on hordes of AI controlled enemies and mini-bosses in a fight for survival.

Dishonored casts you as a supernatural assassin driven by revenge. You are the once-trusted bodyguard of the beloved Empress. Framed for her murder, you become an infamous assassin, known only by the disturbing mask that has become your calling card. In a time of uncertainty, when the city is being besieged by plague and ruled by an oppressive government armed with strange technologies, dark forces conspire to bestow upon you abilities beyond those of any common man.

In Dishonored, creatively eliminate your targets with the flexible combat system as you combine the numerous supernatural abilities, weapons and unusual gadgets at your disposal. Pursue your enemies under the cover of darkness or ruthlessly attack them head on with weapons drawn. The outcome of each mission plays out based on the choices you make.

Following up on a recent report that suggests sales of Call of Duty; Modern Warfare 3 are trailing behind those of Call of Duty: Black Ops, Gamasutra has a statement from an analyst blaming this on the game's afterthought platforms, the PC and Wii (thanks Joao). Word is: "Cowen's Doug Creutz said in his latest report that while life-to-date Modern Warfare 3 retail sales are indeed down 4.6 percent year-over-year compared to Black Ops, sales of the game on the Xbox 360 and PS3 platforms are actually slightly up year-over-year. However, large declines in sales of the versions of the game for Nintendo Wii, handheld platforms and PC have driven the overall decline, he suggests."

Sinister Design announces the release of a new patch for Telepath RPG: Servants of God, updating the action/RPG to version 1.815. In addition to some fixing some bugs, word is: "This patch speeds up the early game, making it possible to go off and explore sooner."

A new Kickstarter campaign by Crate Entertainment looks to fund the competition of development of Grim Dawn, their upcoming action/RPG (thanks nin and Grudgebearer). It was just a couple of weeks ago that they described plans to release the game as a work-in-progress like Minecraft, but now they are turning to crowd funding to turn up the heat, saying: "While we could still finish a fine little game on our own, that would be rough around the edges but very fun, we believe there is a much greater potential that could be realized if we were more adequately funded and staffed. So we're hoping you can help give us some proper funding so that we can get the team together, start making faster progress and ultimately release a bigger, better game for you and everyone else." Here's word on the game:

Grim Dawn is an action role-playing game for PC and a spiritual successor to Titan Quest. For the past two years a small team of former Iron Lore veterans at Crate Entertainment have been developing Grim Dawn with their own, improved version of the Iron Lore engine and tools; the same technology used to create Titan Quest.

We’ve listened to years of feedback from the Titan Quest community and continue to do so every day on the Grim Dawn forums as we strive to improve upon past performance and make this our greatest work yet. The creation of Grim Dawn is guided by traditional design and old school sensibilities, with innovation only in the areas where we feel it truly improves the game and isn't just a gimmicky back of the box feature.

Nordic Games reveals that Polish developer The Farm 51 is working on a new unannounced project. They don't offer any details yet what the NecroVision developer is creating, though they note that the team includes contributors to Painkiller and The Witcher. "In The Farm 51, we found a great partner with a lot of experience and a highly passionate team - just like us - with regards to one of our upcoming key titles," says Reinhard Pollice of Nordic Games.

The Kickstarter Campaign for Wasteland 2 has concluded, with inXile entertainment's post-apocalyptic RPG sequel taking in well over triple its initial USD $900K goal. The finally take listed on the website is $2,933,197, though a note on Shacknews states that this does not count almost $110K in PayPal pledges, so the final total exceeds $3 million. Update: Apologies for misstating the "kick forward" principle at first, which is a pledge of 5% of the project'a eventual profits, not these pledges. Thanks Alex.

Since Microsoft plans to include Xbox LIVE functionality in Windows 8, Neogamr approached them asking if this meant a possible end to the Games for Windows LIVE service, since there is some obvious overlap between the two. The reply was no, offering the perspective that Age of Empires Online and "Microsoft Flight" are targeted at "the core PC gamer." Here's word:

Answer is no, Microsoft continues to support the Games for Windows platform, but we are making new investments in Metro style games. For the core PC gamer we launched “Age of Empires Online” last year and “Microsoft Flight” on February 29.

When it comes to the living room, Xbox 360 was the number one selling connected TV device in 2011 and we have 40 million Xbox LIVE members. We are committed to delivering extraordinary entertainment experiences across devices in a uniquely connected way. Xbox LIVE on Windows 8 is a milestone in that journey. With the Windows 8 Consumer Preview, you’ll get a taste of some of the features we’re bringing with Xbox on Windows, but we’ll have more to share later this year as we get closer to launch.

There's a Star Trek Preview on IGN that includes a teaser trailer for Digital Extremes' upcoming co-op action game based on the sci-fi film reboots. The clip is heavy on action, showing Kirk and Spock doing their best Kane and Lynch impression, running around and shooting everything in sight. The clip concludes reconfirming we should expect the game in "early 2013." Thanks VG247.

Today is the last day to file one's taxes on time here in the U.S., the deadline being 48 hours later than usual thanks to the 15th being on a Sunday. The way electronic filing has taken over this process seems takes some of the drama out of this, however... I guess I'll never again experience the striking scene I remember from years ago at the giant main post office in Manhattan on filing day where there were people crammed into every available space actually filling out their tax forms on the spot to put them in the mail. Talk about tension filling the air!